Dr. Mann
"When I left Earth, I felt fully prepared to die, but I just never faced the possibility that my planet wouldn't be the one." Dr. Mann was a noted scientist and leader of the Lazarus missions through the wormhole, portrayed by actor Matt Damon. Being the lead scientist of the missions, he ventured to another galaxy to research one of the alien worlds with his robot KIPP. However, when prospects on his icy planet became bleak, he felt utterly alone and was forced to face his own survival instincts. Driven by his selfishness, Mann becomes the main antagonist of "Interstellar" . History Dr. Mann was Professor Brand's protege and the Lazarus missions leader who convinced eleven scientists to survey a dozen potentially habitable worlds on the other side of the wormhole. He was considered "remarkable" and "the best ''of us" by his colleagues. When he arrived on Mann, he and his robotic companion KIPP explored the icy surface only to discover that it was inhospitable for human life. They decide to use probes to drill into the ice cloud in the hopes of finding the planet's rocky surface. It is clear in the short comic Absolute Zero that Mann realized that his planet would not be best suited to receive humanity after observing the results from his deep drilling probes, which revealed that his planet has no real surface, but seemingly endless layers of ice cloud. Mann had KIPP produce a hypothetical data set for a good life-sustaining planet before decommissioning him and using his power cell to provide extra energy for his hypersleep chamber. Mann is reawakened by the crew of the [[Endurance|''Endurance]] approximately 30 years later due to the time dilation on Miller. Mann's hypersleep chamber was critically low on power at this point and Cooper had to manually break open his sleep-bag to wake him. Dr. Mann is shaken by the appearance of people come to his rescue, stating he had not set a wake date to his sleep. It is then revealed that he and Prof. Brand knew that Plan A was impossible and that the only contingency that allowed for human continuity was Plan B. Once the truth about Professor Brand's Plan A being impossible was revealed, it was decided that Cooper would return home while Mann, Romilly and Brand would proceed to carry out Plan B on Mann's planet. Dr. Mann, knowing his planet could never support human life in secret, then attempts to murder Cooper, seeing his death as necessary to complete the mission - Plan B. Mann did not want Cooper to return to Earth with the Endurance, as he now needed it to get to Edmunds' planet with the remaining crew to start a colony. He planned to lie about Cooper's death being an accidentInterstellar, The Official Novelization, pg. 220 and later on, tactfully introduce the idea of colonizing Edmund's planet instead, since conditions were more favorable for human life, and the Endurance ''was available for the journey. After witnessing the explosion in his landing pod, signaling the death of Romily and hearing that Cooper survived his attack with Brand on her way to help, Mann changes his plan and instead decides to maroon the crew of the ''Endurance ''on his planet in order to live and to initiate Plan B. He only succeeds in stealing Ranger 1, docking it imperfectly on the ''Endurance. He is killed when the airlock depressurizes despite Brand and Cooper's warnings. This action also severely damages the Endurance ''and sets it on a deadly spin. His last words were, ''"There is a moment." References Category:Characters Category:NASA Category:Lazarus Missions